Download FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 17, 2015 CONTACT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 17, 2015
CONTACT:
Rebecca Bailey, Publicity Coordinator/Writer
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
[email protected]
603.646.3991
Wind Ensemble offers Stravinsky and his colorful “sound world,” May 2
Photo: Matthew Marsit conducts the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble. Photo by Rob Strong.
HANOVER, NH—Experience the colorful “sound world” of early 20th-century Paris in “Stravinsky and Friends,”
a concert by the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble celebrating three composers who shared musical
influences. Taking place Saturday, May 2, at 8 pm in Spaulding Auditorium, this concert also features the sixth
major composition of renowned Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian and Dartmouth student soloists
Scott Smedinghoff and Benjamin Meyer.
The hour-length exploration
of these colorful and specially
orchestrated works offers
Florent Schmitt’s
Dionysiaques (1914), Igor
Stravinsky’s Concerto for
Piano and Wind Instruments
(1924), Jules Strens’ Danse
Funambulesque (1925) and
Arutiunian’s Trumpet
Concerto in A-flat major
(1950).
“Stravinsky and Schmitt were
both members of the French
group of like-minded
musicians, writers and artists
known as Les Apaches,
formed around 1900,” said Wind Ensemble Director Matthew Marsit, explaining the program. “Jules Strens, a
Belgian composer two or three generations later, was a member of Les Synthétistes, a Belgian group of likeminded composers around 1925, largely modeled after Les Six, which itself had been modeled after Les
Apaches, all of whom composed in Montparnasse. I am convinced that if French and not Belgian, Strens would
have been friends with both Stravinsky and Schmitt as they shared much in their compositional styles.”
Best known today for his La tragédie de Salome and Psaume XLVII (Psalm 47), Schmitt’s style, recognizably
impressionistic, owes something to the example of Debussy, though it also bears distinct traces of Wagner and
Richard Strauss. Posing a challenge for performers, the first recording of Dionysiaques appeared in the 1950s,
and it wasn’t until the 1970s that a second recording was released. Although not considered “program music”
that tells a defined story, the work’s title suggests a Dionysian orgy, which is fully realized in the intensity of
the music with its interesting contrasts: brooding chromaticism alternating with thrilling tutti climaxes.
First achieving fame in the early 1910s with works for ballet, Stravinsky turned to neoclassical music in the
1920s, often making use of traditional musical forms and paying tribute to the music of earlier masters, such
as J.S. Bach and Tchaikovsky. The Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments represents a departure from the
“Russian style” of such earlier Stravinsky works as The Rite of Spring. This concerto numbers among many
works Stravinsky wrote for piano for which he kept the performance rights to himself for a number of years—
both because he wanted the playing engagements and urgently desired to keep "incompetent or Romantic
hands" from "interpreting" the piece before undiscriminating audiences, according to musicologist Michael
Steinberg.
As a composer, Strens was self-taught and prolific, sometimes mixing the grotesque with impressionist colors
into a style that remained fundamentally romantic. Written around the same time as Stravinsky’s concerto,
Strens’ Danse Funambulesque is an 11-minute piece crafted as a single movement that consists of two major
sections. The title conveys the ebullient, “gravity-defying” nature of the work: a funambulist is literally a
tightrope walker, and c’est funambulesque also may be translated as “It is fantastic”—a phrase borne out by
the work’s sonic impact, the swelling of voices and the juxtaposition of intense, polyphonic harmonies and lax
melodies, growing and diminishing in sound, and varying in motif and rhythm.
One generation after Strens comes Armenian composer Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto in A-flat major—
according to J. Sundram, "an energetic powerhouse of Eastern European lyricism and harmonic textures. It has
a very Gypsy-ish, Russian, Armenian kind of sound, with very soulful, beautiful melodies and plenty of exciting
rapid-tonguing kind of things.” The concerto was quickly assimilated into the standard trumpet repertoire
worldwide, and has become one of the more frequently recorded 20th-century trumpet works.
The Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble is a select, auditioned wind ensemble of 45 members, performing a
wide variety of music from the late 19th, 20th and 21st century wind ensemble repertoire. The DCWE serves
as a melting pot for the students of Dartmouth College as well as residents of the Upper Valley, sharing music
with our community and those communities beyond the boundaries of our campus through concertizing,
small and large outreach projects and performances, and charitable endeavors that bring the gift of music and
music making to all who welcome it.
An active conductor and clarinetist, Marsit has led ensembles and performed as a solo, chamber, and
orchestral musician throughout the United States. Currently on the artistic staff of the Hopkins Center for the
Performing Arts at Dartmouth College as Director of Bands, Marsit has previously held conducting positions
with the Charles River Wind Ensemble, Cornell University, Drexel University, the Chestnut Hill Orchestra, the
Bucks County Youth Ensembles and the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary. Marsit has served as a
guest conductor, clinician and consultant for a great number of schools, institutions and festivals throughout
the eastern United States, and has produced a recording project for the United States Military Academy West
Point Band. In addition to his current work at Dartmouth College, Marsit was recently named Artist-inResidence in Winds and Music Director of the Williams College Wind Ensemble.
Written by Jeremy M. Whitaker ‘15, Audience Engagement Student Assistant, Hopkins Center for the Arts
RELEVANT LINKS
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/may15_dcwe
http://www.dartmouthwinds.com/
http://www.dartmouthwinds.com/#!music-director/cfps
Download high-resolution photos:
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScont
ent::loadArticle::article_id=A14ACB33-679C-469F-9E075A08469894E7&sessionlanguage=&SessionSecurity::linkName=
CALENDAR LISTING:
“Stravinsky and Friends,” a concert by the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble
In the early 20th century, Paris was the epicenter of tectonic activity that changed the way we hear music.
This concert celebrates three composers who all worked within a “sound world” influenced greatly by
Debussy’s and Wagner’s handling of harmonic color and orchestration. Those works are complemented by
Arutiunian’s 1950 trumpet concerto, an energetic powerhouse of Eastern European lyricism and sound
textures. With soloists Scott Smedinghoff and Benjamin Meyer ’15. Matthew M. Marsit, conductor
Saturday, May 2, 8 pm
Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
$10, Dartmouth students $5
Information: hop.dartmouth.edu or 603.646.2422
* * *
Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing
arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and
the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each
year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students
and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with
outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50th-anniversary season in 2012-13, the Hop
enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the
development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.